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Indian spy keen to meet ex-prison mate Zardari
Having once stayed with Asif Ali Zardari in the Karachi Central Jail, Mehboob Elahi, a former India spy, was keen to meet the Pakistani President during his visit to Delhi.
Kolkata: Having once stayed with Asif Ali
Zardari in the Karachi Central Jail, Mehboob Elahi, a former
India spy, was keen to meet the Pakistani President during his
visit to Delhi on Sunday to raise the issue of Indian prisoners
of war languishing in jails across the border.
Elahi says he wrote to Shahid Malik, Pakistan High Commissioner in India, and President Pratibha Patil seeking appointment with Zardari to draw his attention to the Indian prisoners` plight but did not get any reply. The 52-year-old, who had spent two decades in several Pakistani prisons from 1977 after being caught spying for India, had stayed together in the Pakistani jail with Zardari for two-three months in the late 1980s. "On Sundays, I used to meet him and other leaders of Pakistan People`s Party (PPP) in their cells. He was not only familiar with the issues of POWs, but was also sympathetic to us," Elahi, who now stays in Kolkata, told PTI.
He recalls that Zardari and other leaders were generous to him and used to offer him coffee, fruits and biscuits besides arranging for soaps and oil.
"In Pakistani jails, POWs are kept under inhuman condition. They are not even given basic facilities to keep them alive. We have to survive somehow," Elahi said.
PTI
Elahi says he wrote to Shahid Malik, Pakistan High Commissioner in India, and President Pratibha Patil seeking appointment with Zardari to draw his attention to the Indian prisoners` plight but did not get any reply. The 52-year-old, who had spent two decades in several Pakistani prisons from 1977 after being caught spying for India, had stayed together in the Pakistani jail with Zardari for two-three months in the late 1980s. "On Sundays, I used to meet him and other leaders of Pakistan People`s Party (PPP) in their cells. He was not only familiar with the issues of POWs, but was also sympathetic to us," Elahi, who now stays in Kolkata, told PTI.
He recalls that Zardari and other leaders were generous to him and used to offer him coffee, fruits and biscuits besides arranging for soaps and oil.
"In Pakistani jails, POWs are kept under inhuman condition. They are not even given basic facilities to keep them alive. We have to survive somehow," Elahi said.
PTI